Surveys on contemporary politics abound, but surveys of political culture, the underpinning of politics, are lacking. The Politics of Character survey attempts to bridge the gap between ephemeral opinion and enduring understandings of character, linking the latter to the moral communities to which American citizens belong. A principal finding is that understandings of character are vague and weakly grounded, and that “character” in politics is more importance rhetorically than practically. It is an ideal in search of substantive content.

The responses were constructed from three questions. The first question:Would you say that the first slogan best expresses your outlook, the second slogan best expresses your outlook, or your outlook falls somewhere between the two?1 FIRST SLOGAN2 SECOND SLOGAN3 SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE TWO

There were two follow-up questions to discern where each individual fell.

Note 3

For the variable TIMEZONE, Indiana and Arizona are included separately because each state has special laws regarding daylight savings time.